Ted Greene–whose books and music I adore—wrote this note to himself. I’m interested to hear your reactions to it.
“Some musicians play only for themselves not caring if they reach others, just trying to be true to what they want to hear. Some musicians play only for others for fame, money, wanting to be liked, or other reasons out of selfish motivation. Some musicians play only for others out of pure love or wanting to give, or as (a) sense of responsibility to family, needs of listeners, etc. Most common are mixtures of above, (like me).
Ted – It is your duty to get out and play pretty music for people to 1) balance the onslaught of chaos, violence, excessive volume, etc. that have crept into music more and more as time goes on, 2) to help others not to feel ashamed to express their feelings of tenderness, gentleness, love of beauty, etc. (which lead to a more benevolent attitude towards others). (Those feelings) seem to be innate parts of human nature that get covered up in our society. The reasons for this are possibly that it is not considered “masculine” to express these feelings, rather a male is expected to express how “hip” or “cool” or “funky” or “tough” he is to impress his peers and especially the ladies, and unfortunately in our male dominated society, a distortion happens where women feel they have to act like the men too. It would be considered “lame” to say that a song inspired a feeling of tenderness or other non-aggressive, “hip” emotions.”
What do you make of it? What are your motives for writing songs, performing, and recording?
Source: The Ted Greene Archive–thank you, Barbara!
Related: Who Are You Trying to Impress?
Wow – very thought provoking. I’ve been wrestling with this myself recently. As a Christian I been thinking why spend such a large amount of time on something that is not life and death. But I’ve been reflecting on the fact that God is a creator who delights in spreading flowers on mountain tops that will never be seen by a single living thing, not to mention beautiful creatures at the bottom of the sea, galaxies beyond our telescopes… God loves to create great things and mundane things for the sheer joy of creation and so for me to do the same is part of what it means to be made in the image of God and therefore, by definition, what it means to be human. That’s starting to free me from the need to be heard and is part of the reason I write music.
Interesting to hear a religious perspective. Thank you Matt; that was insightful and poetic. Please don’t put down your guitar and place a skull on your desk anytime soon.
The only skull on my desk is when I’m banging my head on it in frustration!
I hear that one, brother.
In all honesty I have to admit that I am probably a mixture as well, where I like to write music that is for me, but I also hope that others will like it. I must also admit that if I could make money from it that I would also be happy, because let’s face it, being a security guard isn’t exactly what I want to do or the rest of my life.
I seem to spend a lot of time now on lyrics, more so than I used to do. I’m not sure if that is always a good thing, but I started to think of songs almost as stories, whereas before I used to just write whatever came to mind and basically leave it as it is.
In some ways I have found that having that sort of idea can actually help with the creative process, where the song then shapes itself around the lyrics.
Saying that though, I am now doing a first and trying to write with a lyricist. It’s part of the experimenting thing you see.
Hello again Martin! Thanks for the Facebook link; I’m honored.
I think you’re right; it’s not always wise to spend too much time on a lyric. It can be a blurry line between careful craftsmanship and endless tinkering. Over time I’ve fallen into a pattern of roughing out one lyric, then drafting or rewriting a totally different one, then returning once I’ve got some perspective on the first one. The pattern seems much more efficient and fruitful than beating my head against one lyric all day.
I hope you’ll write about your experiences working with a lyricist, Martin. I think this article is relevant to the discussion: Choose one for better songwriting…
The reason I write songs is that I have to. They build up inside me and I have to get them out. The reason I record them is to make the most beautiful things I personally can make on this earth (besides my twin little girls!). I would love to perform, but I don’t feel compelled to and I ain’t that beautiful!
self discovery. you never know what your muse has to say. and feeling inspired is just a good feeling. music gives me that so why wouldn’t I want to create it